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Scientific article
English

Visuospatial working memory deficits and visual pursuit impairments are not directly related in schizophrenia

Contributors

Cocchi, Luca; Bosisio, Francesca; Carter, Olivia; Wood, Stephen J.; Berchtold, André; Conus, Philippe; Orita, Alina; Debbané, Martin; Schenk, Françoise

Published in

Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, vol. 43, no. 8, p. 766-774

Publication date

2009

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Patients with schizophrenia show deficits in visuospatial working memory and visual pursuit processes. It is currently unclear, however, whether both impairments are related to a common neuropathological origin. The purpose of the present study was therefore to examine the possible relations between the encoding and the discrimination of dynamic visuospatial stimuli in schizophrenia. METHOD: Sixteen outpatients with schizophrenia and 16 control subjects were asked to encode complex disc displacements presented on a screen. After a delay, participants had to identify the previously presented disc trajectory from a choice of six static linear paths, among which were five incorrect paths. The precision of visual pursuit eye movements during the initial presentation of the dynamic stimulus was assessed. The fixations and scanning time in definite regions of the six paths presented during the discrimination phase were investigated. RESULTS: In comparison with controls, patients showed poorer task performance, reduced pursuit accuracy during incorrect trials and less time scanning the correct stimulus or the incorrect paths approximating its global structure. Patients also spent less time scanning the leftmost portion of the correct path even when making a correct choice. The accuracy of visual pursuit and head movements, however, was not correlated with task performance. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides direct support for the hypothesis that active integration of visuospatial information within working memory is deficient in schizophrenia. In contrast, a general impairment of oculomotor mechanisms involved in smooth pursuit did not appear to be directly related to lower visuospatial working memory performance in schizophrenia.

Keywords

  • Encoding
  • Eye movements
  • Schizophrenia
  • Visual pursuit
  • Working memory

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

COCCHI, Luca et al. Visuospatial working memory deficits and visual pursuit impairments are not directly related in schizophrenia. In: Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, 2009, vol. 43, n° 8, p. 766–774. doi: 10.1080/00048670903001901

Main files (1)

Article (Published version)

Identifiers

Journal ISSN

0004-8674
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Technical informations

Creation

05/03/2010 11:00:00

First validation

05/03/2010 11:00:00

Update

14/03/2023 15:24:43

Status update

14/03/2023 15:24:43

Last indexation

29/10/2024 13:03:53
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